a revealing show
Houston burlesque star KiKi Maroon teases a silly and sultry burlesque bash
Pole-dancing stormtroopers, clothes-doffing, comic book characters, and a whole lotta bawdiness is what you can expect at KiKi Maroon’s Comic Strip, a night of cosplay burlesque and stand-up comedy happening at Warehouse Live on Saturday, July 14.
This evening of naughty, old-school entertainment with a geeky twist comes from the mind of Maroon, a San Antonio-born, Houston-based entertainer who has been producing and performing in burlesque shows for nearly a decade. Maroon has a monthly residency at Warehouse Live, producing a Vegas-style comedy cabaret known as KiKi Maroon’s Burly Q Lounge. In the past few years, Maroon, who’s also a stand-up comedian, has been incorporating more comedy into the show. “I've been a stand-up for five years now,” she says, “and love it even more than burlesque.”
Comedians will be an integral part of Comic Strip, with such Texas-based comics as Mike McRae, Dale Cheesman, and John Wessling providing the jokes in-between certain-to-be-salacious routines from striptease starlets like Natasha Riot, Juliette Electrique, and Houston’s own Honey Moonpie, who already has a very racy, Pokemon-themed bit. “I love having the comedians be ‘the voice of the audience,” says Maroon. “They have never seen the burlesque acts, so them coming out commenting on whatever insanity they just saw is always hilarious. Professional comics take the ‘Oh my God! Did you see that?’ to a whole new level.”
This is the second Comic Strip; the first one, in 2016, sold out. It’s one of two shows Maroon produces for Warehouse Live’s main stage — the Bayou City Burlesque and Circus Festival in January is the other one. She’s also taken the show to sci-fi, anime and comic-book conventions across the country. “The format is always the same — half stand-up comedy, half ‘nerd-lesque’ — but the cast and acts change based on the theme of the convention,” she says. (Unfortunately, the show hasn’t been done at Houston’s Comicpalooza – and probably won’t — since Maroon had an issue with the convention paying performers last year.)
With the San Diego Comic-Con just around the corner, Maroon is looking forward to those same fanboys who would usually go to that con and others, usually dressed in their favorite characters, checking out this titillating event. “We hope to introduce cosplayers and con-goers to burlesque entertainment as well as introduce my regular burlesque audience to the joys of cosplay and nerdom,” she says.
KiKi Maroon’s Comic Strip will be unveiled on July 14 at Warehouse Live, 813 St. Emanuel St. 8 pm. $25-$75. For more info, visit the official website.
